Last year the commercial complex Tokyo Midtown invited illustrator Ryo Takemasa to illustrate some of the most common birds in Tokyo. By teaming up with graphic design studio Tawarasha, they created a wonderful little pamphlet of 25 of the most common birds of Japan’s capital. They’re all there, from the common swallow and turtle dove to the beautiful great egret and annoying large-billed crow.
Born in 1989, Takuma Sato is a Japanese photographer who studied architecture in school. His work tends to be highly conceptual and his approach to photography is one that highlights the architectural relationship between objects.
Hotel Koe (left) opening 2/9/2018 and Hotel 1899 (right) opening 12/1/2018
In recent years green tea has appeared to follow the very same trajectory as coffee from 1st wave and 2nd wave to now 3rd wave. For better or for worse, green tea is no longer considered an old person’s beverage. It’s hip, it’s healthy and it’s everywhere. Cafes in Japan (and all over the world, for that matter) have been the first to capitalize on this trend. Take for example, San Grams, which opened in 2016, and then the world’s first hand-dripped tea café, which opened in 2017. This year, Tokyo will see two different green tea-inspired hotels opening in Tokyo.
Inspired by the ancient yet versatile 8-bit technology, NY-based Japanese artist Shinji Murakami has been creating works that harken back to the original Dragon Quest, Zelda and other video games of his childhood. So it’s not surprising that much of his work takes after the nostalgic, 8-bit aesthetic of pixelated bumpiness.
all photos sourced from Google Maps
For the past 7 years, Toru Matsui, a plumber who lives in the mountainous Inabucho town of Aichi prefecture, has taken on an ambitious annual art project. Each winter, as temperatures fall and tourists begin to dwindle, Matsui’s artwork becomes a beacon of light that encourages visitors to travel out to his neck of the woods to see his waterfall of ice.
all photos courtesy Yusuke Aonuma
One would be hard-pressed to find a more delicate material to create art from. But for Japanese artist Yusuke Aonuma, single dandelion fluff, the feathery, umbrella-like structure that carries the seed to faraway lands, captivated his creative mind.
Japanese tabloids, like those in any other country, are known for their loud, obnoxious headlines with fonts, text and images all designed to scream at us and catch our attention. But when the noise, in the most literal sense, is cropped out, even these tabloids can transform into abstract art that is at once both calm and meditative.
unless otherwise noted, all photos courtesy Guardian Garden gallery
There’s something endearing but also “off” about the dogs of Akina Tokiyoshi. Glitchy, perhaps, is the right word. As their beady eyes stare back, you feel like you’ve slipped in between a real and digital world; somewhere in the middle of here and there.
Indeed, Tokiyoshi, who graduated from Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2016, breathes life into her dogs in a peculiar process that’s simultaneously digital and analog: a mixed breed of craft and fine art.
Ru Kuwahata is a Japanese animator based in the U.S. Along with Max Porter, she’s one half of the brilliant animation studio Tiny Inventions, which, most recently, were nominated for a 2018 Academy Award for their animated short film “Negative Space.” From 2011 – 2013, Kuwahata was an artist-in-residence in the Netherlands and during this time she created a humorous and insightful comic series that compares Dutch, Japanese and American cultures.
In a bid to promote their autonomous driving technology, Nissan has launched a temporary pilot program in which they are deploying their autonomous driving technology (dubbed “ProPILOT”) into a Japanese ryokan in Hakone, a popular resort town just 1 hour from Tokyo.
